On Thursday, the BBC tweeted:
Due to unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately Ncuti Gatwa is no longer able to participate as Spokesperson during the Grand Final this weekend.
Instead, Sophie Ellis-Bextor will be calling out the UK’s points.
According to Scottish newspaper The national,
The BBC’s announcement came during the second semi-final, reportedly just minutes after Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael qualified for the final.
I blocked some pages due to how they chose to phrase their headlines about this. Not only do several call him “the former Doctor Who star” (I can only assume this is AI generated), one went verbatim, in its entirety: “Doctor Who’s Ncuti Gatwa withdraws from BBC role - and here’s who’s replacing him”. Fuck you.
The baitiest clickbait of all.
That last one is actually hilariously opportunistic. It’s entirely true that he withdrew from a BBC role, but as of now he is still the Doctor… Certain tabloids will write whatever makes people click through, I suppose.
I fucking hate this bullshit. It’s tailor-made to be misunderstood and make you click but if you do “misunderstand” because you don’t follow certain things 24/7 to be able to put their cryptic word diarrhoea into context, well, that’s on you then, they did not lie, everything they said is TECHNICALLY true.
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I blame the people publishing the articles but I also understand they’re playing in a rigged game. The platforms (facebook, reddit etc) that they depend on to get views REQUIRE headlines to be insane clickbait.
If I were the boss of Lemmy I would mandate that all communities require de-clickbaited headlines but what can you do.
Yeah, it’s like how I try not to begrudge YouTubers who make those thumbnails, no matter how much they enrage me.
They’re clearly playing off the rumour that’s been going around since February that Gatwa might be leaving, and baiting people into reading a very minor newiscle, but I agree. It’s borderline disinformation.